TUESDAY, April 2, 2019 -- Brain scans can improve diagnosis and management of Alzheimer's disease, a new study claims.

Researchers assessed the use of PET scans to identify Alzheimer's-related amyloid plaques in the brain. The study included more than 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries with mild thinking impairment or dementia of uncertain cause.

WEDNESDAY, March 27, 2019 -- A new study suggests that the fewer menstrual periods a woman has in her lifetime, the higher her risk of dementia -- though the reasons, for now, are unclear.

The study was based on close to 16,000 women. It found that those who started having periods at age 16 or later were more likely to develop dementia than women who started menstruating at a more typical age.

TUESDAY, March 12, 2019 -- A long-running study questions the conventional wisdom that a healthy diet may help ward off dementia.

European researchers followed more than 8,200 middle-aged adults for 25 years -- looking at whether diet habits swayed the odds of being diagnosed with dementia. In the end, people who ate their fruits and vegetables were at no lower risk than those who favored sweets and steaks.

WEDNESDAY, March 13, 2019 -- A grandparent's mental decline or a great uncle's waning memory may indicate you, too, have greater risk for Alzheimer's disease -- especially if closer relatives have the condition, a new study says.

Alzheimer's in both a first-degree relative (parents, siblings) and a second-degree relative (grandparent, aunt, uncle, nieces or nephews) doubles your risk of the brain-destroying disorder, researchers found. But if you have one first-degree relative and two second-degree relatives with the disease, your risk increases by 21 times.